Four names in twenty-seven years
Few ships change identity this often. This one was R Four from 1999 to 2002,
Tahitian Princess from 2002 to 2009, Ocean Princess from 2009 to 2016, and
Oceania Sirena since. She has served three owners, one of them now gone, before
arriving here.
The move to Oceania came in 2016: thirty-five days of work in Marseille, then
entry into service on 27 April of that year.
Her final sailing has a date
24 March 2028. The ship has been sold to a buyer who has not been named, and
she will be handed over after her spring 2028 deployment. That is what explains
the fourteen dates in 2028 against fifty-three in 2027. Our page carried the
dip without ever saying why.
The hull
Built in 1999 by Chantiers de l'Atlantique at Saint-Nazaire. Thirty thousand
two hundred and seventy-seven gross tons, six hundred and eighty-four guests at
double occupancy, up to eight hundred and twenty-six at maximum, three hundred
and eighty-six crew, nine accessible decks. She belongs to the same series of
eight hulls as her two surviving sisters.
The number of wheelchair-accessible staterooms is published for
no ship in this fleet. We check it at booking rather than quote a figure.
What is included, and what changed in 2024
Start with what many people still think they know. The simply MORE
package, which added a shore excursion credit and an alcoholic beverage package
to the fare, ended on 30 September 2024. Its replacement,
Your World Included, applies to bookings created from 1 October 2024
for sailings in 2025 and later. It gives more in some respects and less in
others.
What it adds: shipboard gratuities are now included for every guest
everywhere, where before they came only with certain regions or loyalty
programmes. What it removes: the excursion credit and the alcoholic beverage
package are no longer granted automatically. A guest who booked with this line
before autumn 2024 therefore arrives with an idea that is no longer accurate.
The rest of the fare is stable and it is substantial. Speciality restaurants
are included, with no cover charge, and this line makes that its central
argument. In-suite dining is included. Starlink Wi-Fi is included and
unlimited. Soft drinks, speciality coffees, teas, still and sparkling water,
juices, smoothies and ice cream are included. So are group fitness classes and
laundry service.
Shore excursions and alcoholic drinks are paid separately, or bought as a
package before departure. Ask your advisor exactly what your booking carries,
because two files on the same ship may not include the same things depending on
their date.
What that means for a buyer
The whole series is going. The Oceania Regatta
has already left, the Oceania Nautica stops on
15 October 2027, and only the
Oceania Insignia has no announced date. If the
format of these small hulls suits you, the window is short. The fleet
is rebuilding around ships twice the size.
Booking from Quebec
The contract is with Oceania Cruises S. de R.L., headquartered in Miami, and
the ships fly the flag of the Marshall Islands. A claim for personal injury,
illness or death goes to the United States District Court for the Southern
District of Florida in Miami, or to a Miami-Dade County court. Every
other claim goes to binding arbitration before National Arbitration
and Mediation in Miami, and the contract imposes a class-action waiver. Only
small claims filed in Miami-Dade County escape that clause.
The deadlines differ by claim type, and the second one surprises people. Six
months' written notice and one year to sue, for personal injury. But
thirty days' notice after the cruise ends for any other claim,
and six months to act. Damaged luggage, a service not delivered, a cancelled
call: thirty days from disembarkation. Baggage liability is capped, and the cap
rises only on a declaration of value with a fee attached. The Athens Convention
applies to international cruises calling at neither a US nor a European port,
with its own limits.
The carrier reserves the right to change the date or time of sailing, the
port of embarkation or the destination, to shorten the cruise or substitute the
ship, without notice and without compensation, except as the law requires.
Nothing establishes a Quebec licence for it. Your protection comes from here:
Voyages AquaTerra holds a licence from the Office de la protection du
consommateur, your payments pass through a trust account, and your departure is
covered by the compensation fund for travel agency customers.